The Shadow of War: Prologue
Link to hub page: The Shadow of War Story It was a cool, clear night as both a humming voice and a large container ship drifted across the water. "Heave, ho, weasels and stoats, hoist co-olors hiigghh..." Jeremy paused for a moment, trying to remember the rest of the words to the song, one written by his favorite composer, Hamster Zimmer. Finding that he couldn't, the young pig pulled out his phone and Zoogled the lyrics. Scrolling through the search results, the deckhand decided to listen to the full song on Zootube instead, and, after deciding that some of the other crewmen on patrol might be enjoying the stillness and peace, pulled a pair of earbuds from his pocket. He plugged them into his phone, cranked it to full volume, and hit the play button. He closed his eyes as the beautiful tune flowed through his ears. He opened them again and resumed his patrol, walking slowly in time with the music. "The king and his men stole the queen from her bed, and bound her i-in her bones," he subconsciously began to sing a little louder, "The seas by ours and by the powers, where we will we'll-" CLANK! As if on reflex he paused the music, stuck the phone in his pocket, and whipped out a flashlight. Jeremy slowly turned around, trying to decipher from where the noise had come from. He finally settled on a nearby alley formed by two large shipping crates, and made his way towards them, holding a glowing flashlight in one hoof, and removing his ear-buds with the other. He suspected it was a loose latch on one of crate doors. The cargo containers were tall, preventing the brilliant white of the full moon from illuminating the alley. Jeremy began to check the doors of the containers, but something gave him a pause. He thought he saw something of a figure hiding in the shadows, but too oddly shaped to be another deckhand on patrol. "He-hello?" He asked, peering into the darkness. Jeremy directed his flashlight down the alley... and gave a little gasp as the mysterious shape quickly darted around a corner before he could get a good look. Being as quiet as he could, the pig tip-toed around to the corner on his side of the container. He took a quick glance to make sure whatever he was following was really there, before jumping out and shining his flashlight in its face. Jeremy instantly dropped it, his eyes froze wide, his lower lip quivered, and his brain struggled to comprehend the thing he was now seeing. It was an animal, to be sure, but not like one he had ever seen before. Its legs were thin, bare of fur, and its knees were contorted backwards. Instead of hooves or paws, it had 4 long toes on each foot, 3 in front and 1 jutting out the back, with a claw on each toe. It had a body, covered in some manner of flat, weird-looking hair, but in place of arms were large, almost disc-like structures that tampered off toward the tail. Even the tail screamed "alien" being static and straight, with not the least bit of prehensility. Jeremy finally found the nerve to look the thing in the eye. It wore a silvery metal mask, with glowing blue pieces over where the eyes appeared to be. The snout- if it could be called that- curved forward to a point, and was razor sharp. All this the pig saw in the span of a few seconds, but could barely comprehend. The thing across from him, however, did not seem shocked in the slightest, and proceeded to unfurl the discs on the sides of its body into massive sail-like structures, before letting out a terrifying, throaty screech. Jeremy turned an ran as fast as he could. "Monster!" he shouted at the top of his lugs, and then again, "MONSTER!" He turned his head as he heard a scratching sound behind him. The thing was pursuing him, its long, thin legs giving it a longer stride than the pig. In the moonlight, Jeremy could now see it was wearing more silvery armor in some places, notably on its body, lower legs, and some parts of its sails. Suddenly the creatures began to flap its disc-like limbs up and down, then lifted its claws off the ground and began gliding through the air towards the terrified pig. "Nightmare, nightmare," was all he could sputter as the creature outstretched it's claws and solidly wrapped them around Jeremy's shoulders. The pig screamed as the monster hoisted him from the deck of the ship, and into the air. ___ A gazelle in indigo overalls, pink shirt, and red jacket tore herself away from the stillness she'd been enjoying, as a terrified call for help rang through the darkness. Looking out over the ship, she spotted a slow moving form... ascending into the air? "HELP ME!" came the voice again. She flipped on her flashlight and shone it into the sky. She gasped as she saw a pig being lifted away by a silver and black being. The being turned to look at the source of the light and released a terrible screech. "HELP ME! HELP MEEEE!" screamed the pig as the thing carrying him flew higher. But there wasn't anything the gazelle could do, except watch with horror as the pig be hauled away into the dark expanse above her. More soon... Category:Monster stories